Special Creation at Grace Church of DuPage

At Grace Church of DuPage, we believe the Bible teaches that everything, both visible and invisible, was created by God out of nothing (Genesis 1:1; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 11:3), and that God accomplished this work of creation in six days (Genesis 1:1-31; Exodus 20:11; 31:17). This is what we mean by “Special Creation.”

We believe the Bible teaches that the climax of God’s creation work happened on the sixth day as he made a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). He blessed them, charging them to reproduce image-bearers like themselves and to rule over creation on his behalf (Genesis 1:28). Then he provided for their care (Genesis 1:29), as well as for that of every living creature he had made (Genesis 1:30).

We believe these affirmations supply essential elements in the Bible’s storyline of redemption: God’s image-bearing creatures living in the world he has made, although cut off from him because of their sin, are reconciled to him by faith in his incarnate, crucified, risen, and returning Son, Jesus Christ, and they now live in hope of eternal life with God in the new heavens and new earth he will create.

The Importance of Special Creation

In the opening verse of the opening chapter of the Bible, we are introduced to the main protagonist in the story, God. Clearly this is the primary purpose of Genesis 1. We immediately know that God is eternal; at “the beginning” he already existed, with no evidence that he began to exist (cf. Psalm 90:2). He is the maker of all things; he “created the heavens and the earth” and, as will be stated, everything that fills them. By the third verse we encounter this God’s power and authority: he creates just by speaking. And he can cause things to exist that we cannot imagine being possible, such as light without an identified light source; “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (v. 3), even though the sun, moon, and stars were not yet created (cf. vv. 14-18). Amazing as this seems, however, his people will still be observing such unique and glorious characteristics of God even as his story enters its final, unending stage; the holy city, the new Jerusalem, will have “no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light” (Revelation 21:23; cf. Isaiah 60:19-20).

This introduces a second purpose evident in Genesis 1: it was not written only to acquaint us with this powerful creator God, but also to awaken within us unrivaled amazement and worship of him. The grandeur and splendor of his glory became increasingly visible as the universe took shape before him in obedience to his commands. It was magnified as that which was initially “without form and void” and shrouded in “darkness” emerged and morphed, stretched and grew, divided and joined, then sprouted and blossomed into what we now recognize as earth and seas and skies and heavens (vv. 3-13). These lush realms then took on the buzz of life as they were populated with every living thing from the tiniest entities that walk among blades of grass or swim in the ocean depths to the enormous ones that roam on the earth or soar in the skies or course through the heavens (vv. 14-31). And all of creation exults together in corporate worship of this creator God (Psalm 19:1-4).

A third purpose arises as we discern the implications of what we read in Genesis 1: if God made all things, then all things belong to him. The earth and seas and skies and heavens and all that fills them, including the people who make use of them and all that fills them, belong to God (Exodus 9:29; 19:5; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1 [cf. 1 Corinthians 10:26]). All things exist because he sovereignly decreed to create them. All things were designed to fulfill the purpose for which God made them, including human beings (Genesis 1:28; cf. Acts 17:24-31). So, we will answer to him for our response to his authority and instruction (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:8-24; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-32; Acts 10:42). Thus, all are accountable to God, even those who do not believe in him; creation displays his existence and power with such clarity that all humanity is “without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). And we are each appointed to stand before him in judgment when this world ends (Romans 14:10-12).

The Importance of Creation in Six Days

Genesis 1 breaks up the forming (vv. 3-13) and filling (vv.14-31) of this world into six equal parts, the days of the creation week. It presses the “normal” nature of these days in the reader’s imagination by concluding each descriptive part with the same familiar refrain: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (v. 4), and so on through all six days (vv. 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). This conveys the distinct impression that the time structure of these six creation days was like any of the days we routinely experience, except for the remarkable work of God that was happening on each of them.

Many in our day struggle with the idea of creation in six twenty-four-hour days. They believe modern science has disproved the likelihood of such belief, if not the logical possibility of it. We will address the topic of potential discrepancies between the interpretations of Scripture and of nature in the final section below, but before that we will note two reasons why we believe it is best, even needful, to affirm the time structure that Genesis 1 seems to labor so diligently and repetitively to establish.

First, we read Genesis 1 as God’s own testimony regarding the beginning of this world. In other words, our beliefs regarding creation are anchored to our trust in the character of God and in the reliability of his communication to us in Scripture. We believe Genesis 1 tells God’s story (through the human author) in the way God intended it to be read and understood. We therefore receive it as his authoritative word on the subject. And while we recognize that it is possible to interpret this passage in ways that are more compatible with the work (including the methods and worldviews) of modern science, we are persuaded that Genesis 1 (and, more generally, Genesis 1-11) is historical reportage in the same way Genesis 12-50 is, meaning we see no literary indication that we are to read these two sections of the same writing interpretatively differently, and that the historical narrative of Genesis as a whole is to be taken as basically in accord with our normal experience of time.

Second, we do not see compellingly persuasive reason(s) in the testimony of modern science to move away from this understanding of Genesis 1. We do not intend this affirmation to be dismissive of the work of the natural sciences, but we do recognize three important bases for it that expose some of our convictions regarding the limitations of science to play a prominent role in our interpretation of Scripture. (1) We recognize that it is not primarily a scientific activity we are engaging in as we read, interpret, and meditate on Genesis 1 (or any other Bible passage). We readily admit that it is impossible to avoid all influence of the natural sciences in our interpretation of Scripture—our thought patterns are formed by our intellectual engagements in every area of our lives—but we also assert that our interpretation of Scripture may not, need not, always square with all the views currently being espoused in the natural sciences. In fact, our interpretation may even yield truth claims that are believed to be scientifically impossible. For instance, although there is no scientific paradigm that can explain the resurrection of Jesus or the bodily resurrection of all humanity at the end of this age, we still believe firmly in the former and, based on that, fully trust the promises in Scripture regarding the latter. The miracles performed by Jesus and the Apostles are another example of actions and events that science would deem impossible. But we believe they actually happened in space and time just as Scripture reports. We believe them by faith, meaning, we have full confidence in the power of God to do, or enable, them; and we believe them in good faith, meaning, we have full confidence in the trustworthiness of those who bore witness to them, and also in the Word of God that records them. This does not excuse us from the need to adjust certain ones of our biblical or theological convictions which reflect specific scientific beliefs that are later proven to be false. For example, the church eventually adjusted its scientific and theological understanding to incorporate a heliocentric rather than a geocentric solar system, but such adjustments can never be made quickly or easily. The reason for this is not because Christians mistrust the voice of science intrinsically, but because the view in question is understood to be the revealed and authoritative Word of God, aided by a long history of interpretation by the Holy Spirit-indwelled people of God. We simply cannot and will not hold such testimony lightly. (2) We recognize that scientific theories are continuing to develop just as scientific discoveries are continuing to accumulate. Scientific knowledge is not complete, nor is it static. It is, therefore, as pointless as it is impossible to try to square our biblical interpretation with such an expanding body of scientific knowledge at every step of its development. And the importance of this assertion is magnified as we see the presently predominant convictions of scientists seemingly contradicting some biblical or theological point that we believe is essential to God’s revealed truth and unfolding plan. For example, in any theory of evolution, atheistic or theistic, death is an unavoidable component—human, physical death even before the arrival of any biblical, historical Adam and Eve, not to mention before these two sinned and experienced the resulting state of spiritual death God had promised (Genesis 2:17) and therefore also, later, physical death (Genesis 5:5). We will address the importance of the historical Adam and Eve immediately below, but here we will simply say that it would be foolish for us to dismiss such a foundational biblical-theological principle as “human death resulted from sin” just because it is presently out of step with the prevailing scientific theory regarding the origin of human life. (3) We recognize that our assessment, interpretation, and understanding of all forms of knowledge, even scientific knowledge, are unavoidably flawed by our fallen nature. This does not mean that no reliable knowledge is possible, but simply that there is an undeniable and irrepressible tendency in every human intellect affected by the fall to interpret any form of data according to its own impaired perspectives, priorities, and purposes. Scientists are always laboring (and helping one another) to overcome the impact of such flaws in their work, just as exegetes and theologians are doing in theirs. So, all of us together cannot afford to forget that such labors will never be finished in this life and, therefore, that our claims to knowledge of any grand sort must always include this humble disclaimer.

Thus, for these two reasons we are firmly convinced that the activities described in Genesis 1:1-2:3 should be understood as having occurred according to what we still experience as the normal passage of time, meaning that God created this universe and everything in it in six twenty-four-hour days.

After these six days, Scripture records that “the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Genesis 2:1). Then “God rested” (v. 3). Because of this, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (v. 3). In fact, he decreed that his rest from his creative work on this day established a pattern for his people to follow in imitation and honor of him—they should likewise labor for six days and rest on the seventh (Exodus 20:8-11; 31:12-17). This Sabbath rest anticipates the eternal rest into which the redeemed will enter in his promised new creation (Hebrews 4:1-13, especially v. 9). Some even suggest that the eternal duration of this ultimate seventh day is anticipated already in Genesis 2:1-3 by its omission of the “evening and… morning” refrain that was so present in Genesis 1.

The Importance of the Creation of Adam and Eve

The climax of the creation week is identified in the text by a brief poem (Genesis 1:27). It chronicles God’s creation of the first two human beings, a man and a woman, made in his own image and likeness. And it is tucked in between his declaration of intent to create these two (v. 26) and his blessing and commissioning of them for the purpose they were designed to fulfill (v. 28): “… God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” In other words, this man and woman, Adam and Eve, were charged by God to continue the good work of creation he had begun by populating the earth and ruling over it on his behalf. Their initial responses to this charge are vividly described in Genesis 2:4-25. However, the very next chapter (Genesis 3) records that Adam and Eve were expelled from the presence of God because they violated the one restriction he placed upon them in the garden he had prepared for them: “… the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17). But they ate of that tree anyway, tempted by the serpent to do so, and they surely died—not physically at that instant, but spiritually as the curse was pronounced (Genesis 3:8-19). They were estranged from God, cut off from the one whose very being is life (cf. John 1:4; 5:26; 6:57) and who alone can grant life (Genesis 2:7), restore life (cf. Deuteronomy 30:19-20; John 14:6), and sustain life (1 John 5:11-12). And because they were separated from God by their sin (Romans 5:12), all their offspring would now be born into this same state known as “spiritual death,” and would therefore also experience the physical death which mirrors it (Romans 5:14; cf. Genesis 5:1-32).

It is due to this tragic fracture that the central theme in the Bible regarding our relationship with God is labeled “the storyline of redemption.” Throughout the remainder of God’s written communication to humankind, his creation of the world and his redemptive plan are inextricably interwoven. Creation and redemption are united together, both being achieved in and through and for the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15-20). There are extended parallels between the historical person, actions, and legacy of Adam, who introduced sin and death into the world, and the historical person, actions, and legacy of Jesus Christ, who accomplished everything needed for our redemption, salvation, and eternal life (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 42-49). And more, all of God’s “very good” creation, which was corrupted by Adam’s sin, will ultimately be redeemed and restored in God’s new creation by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:18-23; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

Closing Thoughts on Disputes between Special Creation and Modern Science

As we have noted above, Genesis 1 was written in such a way that it tells a story. It gives an account of a series of events that it presents as having really happened even though the array of details that make up those events is so vast in its diversity and scope that the account is comprised mostly of grand, sweeping, summary statements. Because of this style, and because it presents the origins of all that exists as the purposeful actions of a supernatural being, the Bible’s creation account can read more like fanciful myth than like historical narrative. And because other writings with a similar style and subject matter that come out of the same historical and cultural context as the Bible (the ancient Near East) are technically categorized as myth, some readers want to label Genesis, and especially Genesis 1-3, as myth. But this appraisal can too easily lose touch with the fact that the supernatural God who is introduced in these chapters actually exists, and that he superintended the writing of this passage such that what it records is true and reliable. For this reason, while we affirm that discussions of genre may be legitimately pursued in the spirit of better understanding God’s Word, we would insist, with any who would identify the literary form of this passage as myth, that Genesis 1-3 is “a true myth” (borrowing the words of C. S. Lewis describing Christ’s redemption in his letter to Arthur Greeves dated October 18, 1931). It is “God’s myth,” as opposed to being a myth of human origin. Therefore, what it says is true. And what it communicates is reliable.

Some take issue with this level of confidence in the Genesis creation account because, as we have also noted above, they believe the discoveries of various modern sciences render it untrue or unreliable. But, in addition to the convictions we have already expressed on this topic, we do not believe that science well-practiced will ultimately be at odds with Scripture well-interpreted. When tones become heated in dialogues and debates that are seeking the most defensible interpretations of challenging passages of Scripture or points of theology (e.g., Genesis 1-3), it seems to us that the disposition most often lacking is Christlike humility. Likewise, this seems to us to be the case when similar tones arise in discussions where biblical and scientific assertions about the origins of this world are presented as fundamentally incompatible with one another. And we believe this lack of humility is far too frequently evident on both sides of such disputes. But we would suggest that this lack is as unnecessary as it is unhelpful and un-Christlike because we are confident that, as we continue to give time and attention to studying both God’s Word and his world, doing so with ever-increasing skill and cumulative insight, and as we then learn to compare and contrast our findings in genuinely humble dialogue, we will discover that Scripture and creation are not so much at odds as they have often appeared to be. Rather, we believe they will finally prove to be in perfect accord.

So, we believe it is best to let both Scripture and creation (special and general revelation, respectively) speak, and to tune our ears to hear each one well, confident that both are expressions from and about the glorious God whom we meet in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and whose works we still observe in the world he has made, fallen as it now is. As we do this, we believe that our whole experience of life in this world, and in relationship with its creator, will come into focus in ways that elicit unbounded worship of him and thanksgiving for the intellectual capacities he has enabled which allow his creatures to gain an ever more developed and detailed appreciation of his glory.